Sunday, November 3, 2013

Updated on 11 - 10 - 2014Even though the ban on female driving caught the attention of the international community and enough protest was raised, the authorities did not heed to the desire of the civilized world. The Saudi women and their helping male friends have decided to rev up the campaign. The online petition is becoming a huge success. We are providing here the link to text of the petition in English as well as the petition itself.Original Post

Driving While Female

One might think these are stories made up by idiots. Many do
not take such stories seriously. What if they are true? I am telling you about
the struggle of Arabian women for the right to drive their cars! The clerics, the
police and the state in Saudi Arabia are anxiously at war against women.
Literally they are!

Women are banned from driving because the Wahhabi
interpretation of Islam has found out that if allowed, the deviation would
undermine the very structure of Saudi Arabian Islam. The country has no written
law banning women from driving. Some of them possess International Driving licenses.
The Saudi authorities do not issue drivers’ licenses to women.

Arabian Human Rights activist Wajeha al-Huwaider challenged
the ban. The video showing her driving is available on the internet. (1). This
was a message for women to drive on Women’s day 2008.

There were reports of an arrest of a woman in her 20s in
Mecca in 2009.

On Saturday, November 07, 2009 , Saudi Gazette reported
detention of two female professors of King Abdul Aziz University the previous
day.(2).

It is guessed that there can be very many cases which were
never reported anywhere. Even a Saudi princess made public statement to the
effect that she had driven outside and wanted to drive in her country. (3).

Rym Ghazal writing for National Geographicsays there were protests in 1990 and 2011 and
dozens of women participated in driving opposing the ban. A CNN report mentions
that 47 women drove through Riyadh in the first demonstration. Some were fined and jailed, some lost jobs and
status in society, and were shunned by a superstitious society. (4,5) . In the “Women2Drive”
campaign of 2011, dozens of women drove through streets of their cities, it reports.

asked the authorities to lift the ban. The online movement urging
women to drive cars on October 26thgained popularity within and without the country.

It is said that the
site was blocked on Friday afternoon and was replaced by a message, “Drop the
leadership of Saudi women”. A leading cleric had issued a scientific fatwa to
the effect that driving could cause damage to the ovaries and pelvises! He
warned of clinical problems. (5).

On the eve of the planned protest, Turki al-Faisal, the
interior ministry spokesman warned that even online support for the campaign
could invite arrest. By Friday night the campaign organizers dropped the
October 26th specification.

France 24 reported that at least 16 women had been fined for
defying the ban. The campaign was entitled “Women’s driving is a choice”. They not
only were fined but had to sign a pledge to the effect that they would respect
the kingdom’s laws. (6). France 24 notes that this discriminatory policy is
against ‘UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
women’ which Saudi Arabia had ratified in 2000.

According to
TIME World, “On Saturday, more than 60 women said they defied the ban, although
they faced little action from police.” It notes that men , most of them in
their 20s and 30s were active in the campaign. The help provided by men seems
to be crucial: “In the run-up to the
weekend protest, men played a key role in helping wives, sisters and female
friends to enjoy what they believe is a fundamental right.

Since the campaign
was launched in September, they have produced videos of women driving and put
them on social networks.

They have helped
protect the female drivers by forming packs of two or three cars to surround
them and ward off potential harassment.

And some have simply ridden as passengers with the women as
they run their daily errands.”(7). From their views quoted, it is clear that they have the right
perspective. This source further tells us about the now popular, “No Woman, No
Drive” video: “Alaa Wardi of Riyadh, who says he is not involved in the
campaign, has produced an online video called “No Woman, No Drive,” using a Bob
Marley song to mock comments by a prominent sheik who said driving can harm a
woman’s ovaries. It has had more than 8 million views since Saturday.” (8).

It is gratifying to note that several men
knowing that their help in this respect might end up in risking jobs, getting
detained and jailed, not to speak of social ostracizing, quietly helped to
gather momentum for the movement. They know perfectly well that women are an
essential part of social revolution.

Human
Rights watch observes: "After more than 100clerics visited the Royal Court, the office of
the king, to protest “the conspiracy of women driving,” as one cleric called
it, the Interior Ministry issued a statement on October 23 warning that
officials would enforce the law on October 26, when women were to drive. Saudi
activists said that on October 24 a man who said he was from the Interior
Ministry individually phoned women activists behind the “Women2Drive” campaign,
warning them not to drive. He told them that officials would take measures
against all women who defied the driving ban, and that women caught driving
could be taken into custody. Some women who had planned to drive on October 26
decided against it, they said.” In spite of warnings, intimidations, harassments
and obstructions, the campaign gets strengthened with the call to ‘normalize
driving’.The authorities are out to go
to any extreme. The movement proposes to continue driving in public and posting
videos or photos of themselves online. Twelve films have been posted on You
Tube. The Guardian reports from activists: some other women had also driven but
without recording their exploits on video or in photographs.(9, 10). According
to the activists more than 60 took part which means October 26 demonstration is
the biggest of all the ban demonstrations held in Saudi Arabia. They also
report that they have succeeded in garnering 16,600 signatures on the online
petition demanding change. One of the positive features of the campaign is the
effective use of social media especially Twitter.

Joe Stork,
Deputy Middle East Director of Human Rights Watch said: “Saudi authorities are
retaliating against people who want a very basic right for women, the right to
get behind the wheel and drive themselves where they want to go. The
authorities should end the driving ban and stop harassing people for supporting
women’s rights.”(11).

On 30, October
2013 (Wednesday), The Guardian reported the news of detention of Tariq
al-Mubarak who was an active supporter of the campaign. A school teacher, he used
to write in a daily, ‘Ashraq al-Awsat’. Though he was contacted regarding a
stolen car, the criminal investigation department was interrogating about his
activity in the campaign. His friends who went to the investigator’s office in the hope of bringing him back were also detained for hours
and interrogated. The Guardian says: “He said the courts in Saudi Arabia did not have
sufficient provisions to deter those who threatened others against exercising
their freedoms because "rights and freedoms … are not instilled in our
culture, nor our interpretation of religion".

Mubarak, who
also works as a schoolteacher, was among a core group of Saudis calling for
women's right to drive. Around 60 women claimed they got behind the wheel on
Saturday to oppose the ban. The campaign angered the kingdom's
ultra-conservative religious establishment.”

Global
Voices has correctly pointed out the unmistakable part played by the Saudi
Government in the ban. Tariq al-Mubarak has been in detention since 3 p.m.,October
27thwithout access to
relatives or legal help . (12).The success of the campaign has angered the
clerics and the bureaucracy. Please see the Post Script below. Tariq has since been released.* The petition below was delivered to:

The Saudi government

King Abdullah Al-Saud

and

Closed with 125 supporters

You are
requested to sign the online petition addressed to King Abdulla asking for the
release of Tariq al-Mubarak:

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United Nations Draft Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations Draft Declaration of Human Rights

Preamble

Whereas, the realization in practice of the Universal DeclarationofHuman Rightsdepends on the intellectual and emotional acceptance by the people of the universal human values on which these rights are founded,

Whereas, disregard and contempt for human values have resulted in barbarous acts that have outraged the conscience of humanity,

Whereas, it is essential to promote the development and acceptance of basic human values by the peoples of all nations to usher in a world order based on freedom,truth, reason, and compassion,

Whereas, the people of the United Nations have in the Charter and the Universal declaration of Human Rights affirmed their faith in the dignity and worth of the human person and have determined to promote social and cultural progress in peace and harmony, and

Whereas, the common understanding and acceptance of these universal human values is of the greatest importance for the realization of this pledge;

Now therefore the General Assemblyof the United Nations proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Values as a common ideal of attainment for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every section of society, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these values and make all efforts, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition among the peoples of the world.

ARTICLES

Article 1:

Source of Values:Dignity of the human personas an autonomous agent endowed

with reason is the ultimate source of all values.

Article 2:

Reason: Reason is an essential human faculty in promoting the progress of human kind enabling human beings to have a world view that motivates their thoughts and actions. Cultivation of rational thinking is, therefore, an intrinsic human value.

Article 3:

Critical Intelligence:The essential nature of human beings is to question, examine, and understand. It is necessary to subject all beliefs to the scrutiny of reason and critical intelligence, in order to eliminate error. An unexamined belief is not worth having.

Article 4:

Truth:The aim of all rational thought is the discovery of truth. Truth consists of beliefs about reality resulting from rational thinking and experience. Quest for truth is, therefore, a supreme human value.

Article 5:

Tolerance:Tolerance of differing ideas and viewpoints is essential for the discovery of truth. Absence of tolerance leads to denial of freedom and the suppression of creativity. Tolerance is, therefore, a basic human value.

Article 6:

Creativity : All social progress is the result of human creativity. Rooted in the individuality of a human being, creativity can flourish only in an atmosphere of freedom.

Article 7:

Freedom:Respect for the dignity of the human person demands that the freedom of every human being ought to be ensured in all spheres of life, consistent with the freedom of all.

Article 8:

Equality:Respect for the human person implies that all human beings shall be treated as equal in dignity and rights irrespective of race, nationality, belief or non-belief, colour, gender, age, or sexual orientation.

Article 9:

Justice:The principle of justice which dictates equal consideration for the well being of every individual shall inform all social institutions and relations between individuals.

Article 10:

Humankind and Nature:Man being a part of nature necessitates his living in harmony with it. Concern for all life and the quality of the environment ought to guide all human activities.

Article 11:

Universal Culture :It should be the aim of all human endeavor to evolve a universal human culture based on freedom, reason, and compassion.